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Hi everyone,
This weekend marked a momentous move forward in wing rib construction. After finally building my hole-flanging jig, I was able to knock out the majority of those crazy lightening holes that have haunted me for a while. I have yet to build the special jig for flanging the oval holes in the center ribs, but I've got it laid out on the block and it shouldn't take too long to get that taken care of.
I started out by tracing the master wing jig onto a piece of synthetic decking per Dwayne Parkinson's suggestion (my building partner). I went down to my local lumber supplier and picked up a piece of 12-inch by 12-foot synthetic skirt board to make sure it would be wide enough and have enough material left over for "mistakes". I was hoping to find some of the material that was entirely made up of recycles plastic, but there wasn't any to be found anywhere in town at any store, big box or small shop. But what I did find was a plastic encapsulated wood-fiber product, and it worked fantastically.
I bought an arbor press from my good friend at Harbor Freight specifically for this purpose, and it's the best $129 (on sale) that I've ever spent! Well, at this point in time it is, anyway. With my friend Alan's help, we were able to knock out all of the lightening holes in a weekend. I spent a few hours building up the jig the weekend prior, and made some minor adjustments to it on Saturday when we started work. While setting up the first couple, Alan said, "There's gotta be a better way". So he used the jigging holes in the ribs that I used during the cutting/routing/bending process, and drilled some 3/16" holes into the flanging jig. We then went over to the local Fleet Farm (living in farm country is a wonderful thing) and got some 3/16" pins that were easily slid into the jig holes on each rib to hole it in place for pressing. Way nicer than the 3/16" screws we were using, as the lack of threads allowed them to go in and out very easily.
The first center rib had some significant warpage on the front-spar end due to the lack of material close to the hole. Using a modification on a suggestion made by Caleb Ihreg, I clamped a piece of wood onto the front of the rib to keep it rigid during pressing, and the warping was eliminated entirely. Everything turned out perfectly. After a solid two days of manipulating the high-tech controls of the hydraulic press, all of the ribs have been flanged and are ready for de-potato-chipping (technical term?), and getting them ready for stiffening angles.
I've also added a family photo of all of the ribs that have been completed since the beginning of the project. I still have to do the short ribs behind the fuel tanks and the full-sized ribs for the wing tips. Note that Dwayne and I are building two planes, side by side, which is why it looks like there are so many ribs. Because there are! 220 ribs, 540 lightening holes.
Almost there... Photos to follow.
~Chris
This weekend marked a momentous move forward in wing rib construction. After finally building my hole-flanging jig, I was able to knock out the majority of those crazy lightening holes that have haunted me for a while. I have yet to build the special jig for flanging the oval holes in the center ribs, but I've got it laid out on the block and it shouldn't take too long to get that taken care of.
I started out by tracing the master wing jig onto a piece of synthetic decking per Dwayne Parkinson's suggestion (my building partner). I went down to my local lumber supplier and picked up a piece of 12-inch by 12-foot synthetic skirt board to make sure it would be wide enough and have enough material left over for "mistakes". I was hoping to find some of the material that was entirely made up of recycles plastic, but there wasn't any to be found anywhere in town at any store, big box or small shop. But what I did find was a plastic encapsulated wood-fiber product, and it worked fantastically.
I bought an arbor press from my good friend at Harbor Freight specifically for this purpose, and it's the best $129 (on sale) that I've ever spent! Well, at this point in time it is, anyway. With my friend Alan's help, we were able to knock out all of the lightening holes in a weekend. I spent a few hours building up the jig the weekend prior, and made some minor adjustments to it on Saturday when we started work. While setting up the first couple, Alan said, "There's gotta be a better way". So he used the jigging holes in the ribs that I used during the cutting/routing/bending process, and drilled some 3/16" holes into the flanging jig. We then went over to the local Fleet Farm (living in farm country is a wonderful thing) and got some 3/16" pins that were easily slid into the jig holes on each rib to hole it in place for pressing. Way nicer than the 3/16" screws we were using, as the lack of threads allowed them to go in and out very easily.
The first center rib had some significant warpage on the front-spar end due to the lack of material close to the hole. Using a modification on a suggestion made by Caleb Ihreg, I clamped a piece of wood onto the front of the rib to keep it rigid during pressing, and the warping was eliminated entirely. Everything turned out perfectly. After a solid two days of manipulating the high-tech controls of the hydraulic press, all of the ribs have been flanged and are ready for de-potato-chipping (technical term?), and getting them ready for stiffening angles.
I've also added a family photo of all of the ribs that have been completed since the beginning of the project. I still have to do the short ribs behind the fuel tanks and the full-sized ribs for the wing tips. Note that Dwayne and I are building two planes, side by side, which is why it looks like there are so many ribs. Because there are! 220 ribs, 540 lightening holes.
Almost there... Photos to follow.
~Chris
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